Driving Performance While Supporting Employee Wellbeing

Individuals are motivated to act in ways and pursue goals that align with their values and what matters most. When management, organizational and personal values align, research predicts:

• higher job satisfaction

• lower employee turnover

• greater trust and collaborations among teams

Values alone, however are not enough. Employees require the right job resources, both workplace and personal and access to these resources show:

• reduced stress and discomfort

• increased engagement and performance

• more effective responding to challenges

The Case for Resilience

Developing employee resilience should be a core goal for organizations because while workplace challenges inevitably do increase job stress, resilient individuals:

• demonstrate less distress,

• greater persistence, and

• ability to adapt to meet goals.

Resilience is about more than just coping, it’s about the ability to thrive under pressure.

The Missing Link: Engagement

Engaged employees who see value in their work are motivated to invest time and effort into organizational goals. Engaged employees are also tend to experience greater personal life satisfaction.

Yet most employees are not engaged at work, resulting in billions lost in productivity (Lu et al., 2023).

Happy and engaged employees are productive employees, so how do we increase engagement?

Strategies for Sustainable Engagement

• Identify and provide appropriate job resources to help reduce stress and boost motivation.

• Connect work tasks to employee values and identity, helping them see why their work matters.

• Reinforce engagement behaviours consistently and regularly, through recognition, positive feedback and growth opportunities.

• Have leadership model value-driven behaviours, for employees to look to for guidance.

Bottom Line

Sustainable workplace engagement is about creating an environment based on shared values, appropriate resources and building resilient employees. The result is a workforce that is more engaged and ready to meet the challenges ahead.

Arieli, S., Sagiv, L. & Roccas, S. (2020). Values at work: The impact of personal values in organisations. Applied Psychology: An International Review. doi:10.1111/apps.12181.

Lu, Y., Zhang, M. M., Yang, M. M. & Wang, Y. (2023). Sustainable human resource management practices, employ resilience, and employee outcomes: Toward common good values. Human Resources Management. doi:10.1002hrm.22153.